A primer for lifting while pregnant

Disclaimers! A huge reason that people avoid giving advice to pregnant women is that they are especially wary of causing harm to an unborn fetus. This information is for educational purposes only; presumes an otherwise uncomplicated, medical-issue-free parent and baby; and further presumes you will not take any action without the consultation of your own personal medical professional. No one is to arrive at at the hospital in an injured state saying, “But Casey said.”

The Question

How do you navigate working out while pregnant?

I find most advice boils down to 'do what feels right for your body,' but I've also heard conflicting things, including from a doctor who said I shouldn't do anything that caused me to breathe heavily (!!!) during pregnancy.

Do you have any tips for sifting through a mountain of sometimes contradictory advice and rules?

—AM

The Answer

Whew, let me just say, I’m so happy that my life has finally dovetailed with this overall subject. As someone who enjoys bullshit detection, cannot stand being talked down to, and generally loves being angry and indignant, pregnancy is just acres and acres of rich, fertile soil to till, as far as the eye can see.

There are whole textbooks on all the technical specifics of all the different ways that pregnant women might work out differently. But a lot of the sweeping advice you hear—don’t lift more than x pounds, “don’t exert yourself”—is issued out of caution, mostly based on the fact that a lot of people have specific situational or biological challenges (diabetes, connective tissue disorders, existing injuries). Those issues are important to address. But this kind of over-cautious advice doesn’t speak to most people.

There are also plenty of pregnancy-related challenges where we have no firm idea of how many people are affected, or not affected! Pelvic floor pain or tightness, joint laxity that might interfere significantly with lifting, so many things that happen to pregnant people are met with, “yeah, that happens sometimes. Come back in two weeks if it still hurts/is still bothering you.” We live in the Dark Ages!

But to that end, the goal of this post is not to be a technical guide (I am not a textbook). Instead, it’s to capture the overall spirit of what it’s like to work out and especially lift weights while pregnant, to help you understand what is possible in an otherwise uncomplicated pregnancy.

First, I want to state up top the benefits of exercising during pregnancy. People love to run their mouth with scary-sounding but vague warnings about “high heart rate” this, “high body temperature” that, “pelvic floor stress” the other, and then say none of the very high upsides, especially of strength training.

In this community, pregnant people can’t say enough about how helpful lifting is to the experience of being pregnant. Classic pregnancy and post-partum symptoms like back and shoulder pain, overall body pain, and pelvic floor weakness can be greatly helped by lifting (with good form, of course). Women who exercise have higher incidences of vaginal birth; faster post-partum recovery; lower incidences of C-sections and gestational diabetes; and even slightly lesser associations with hypertension and preterm birth. I’d like any doctor who vaguely warns pregnant women not to “exert” themselves to stick all that in his pipe and smoke it.[^1]